True it is hard to hate considering the cost but it also seems to have similar overall design like the CTS I looked at.

Exactly.

I understand why a $20k chevy looks the way it does. It is appealing to a completely different demographic. What kills me is that GM has made these types of interiors a "signature" across all of its brands and almost all models.

It strikes me as a 1980s interior doing a bad impression of what it thinks a year 2000 interior should look like, but doing it in 2012.